“Gangnam Style” (Korean: 강남스타일, IPA: [kaŋnam sɯtʰail]) is a 2012 Korean popsingle by the South Korean rapper PSY. It is praised by some for its humor, catchy rhythm[1] as well as PSY’s unusual dance moves. The song was released on July 15, 2012, when it debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart.[2] The music video has been viewed over 235 million times as of September 21, 2012,[3] making it YouTube‘s most watched K-Popvideo.

“Gangnam Style” is a Korean language colloquialism that refers to a luxurious lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district,[10] an affluent area ofSeoul,[11] where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed “class”. The term was listed in Time‘s weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul’s Gangnam district.[12] In a CNN interview, PSY has compared Gangnam to Beverly Hills, California.[13]

“Gangnam’s like a territory in Seoul, Korea. I describe it as normal at the daytime and going crazy at the nighttime. I compare ladies to the territories. So normal at the daytime, going crazy at the nighttime. The lyrics said I am the right guy for the lady…who’s like that.”[14]

The song is about “the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild.”[15] The song assists in defining this by the singer exclaiming “Aaaaay Sexy Lady!” The song’s refrain “오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)” has been translated as “Big brother is Gangnam style”, with Psy referring to himself;[16][17] “oppa” is a Korean expression used by females to refer to an older male friend or older brother.[18]

The song is a satire of conspicuous consumption in South Korea – such satire is unusual in South Korean music, especially in K-Pop, which is known for bubblegum pop.[19] South Korea has a high amount of conspicuous consumption. The country’s credit card debt is 155% of its disposable income, and such debt has been encouraged by the government to help drive economic growth. One of the most common types of conspicuous consumption is expensive coffee. Women known as Doenjangnyeo are known to spend large amounts on expensive coffee while eating cheap Ramenmeals. This is why Psy draws attention to drinking coffee in the song.[19]

The lyrics are by PSY, music by Psy and Yoo Gun-hyung, and it was arranged by Yoo Gun-hyung, who is a well-known producer in South Korea and also collaborated with PSY in the past. In K-Pop, it is unusual for an artist to write his own music and choreograph his own video as Psy does.[19]

The music video shows PSY dancing a comical horse-riding dance and appearing in unexpected locations around the Gangnam District, such as an outdoor yoga session and a hot tub. It features a “skewering [of] the Gangnam image” by the “non-Gangnam PSY”; this parody would be recognizable to viewers familiar to Korean culture.[20]

In K-Pop, it is routine to have cameos by celebrities in a music video, such as in the dance scenes in the elevator and the parking garage.[19] Making appearances in the music video are:

4minute member Hyuna playing PSY’s love interest and appearing in the two final dance sequences.[21][22]

BIGBANG members Daesung and Seungri appear in the video as two old men playing a board game in the park; they are the two men flying in the background after the explosion. [23]

Hwang Min-woo, a 5-year-old boy who is seen dancing at the beginning of the video. During an interview with CNN, PSY stated that “the night before the music video shoot, I was watchingKorea’s Got Talent and saw him dance to Michael Jackson. His moves were ridiculous. So we called him up and asked him to be in the music video, which was shooting the very next day, and he came and it all worked out.”[13][22] He has been praised for his eye-catching dance moves that has received a lot of attention from viewers.[24]

Comedian/television personality, No Hongchul, dancing in an elevator with his trademark pelvis-thrusting, with PSY rapping underneath him.[21][22]

The music video shows PSY dancing at various locations in Gangnam.[21] Although there are more than ten different locations featured, only two of the scenes are actually filmed in the Gangnam district. The sauna scene, elevator scene, bathroom scene were filmed in places including Gyeonggi Province or Incheon.[25] PSY appears to visit all the stereotypical symbols of wealth in South Korea before the camera reveals he is actually someplace ordinary – for example, what appears to be a fancy beach is revealed to actually be a playground sandbox.[19]

When “Gangnam Style” was first released on July 15, 2012, it was known only to fans of K-Pop, and in particular those of PSY’s record label the South Korean management agency YG Entertainment. PSY told Yonhap News Agency that he originally “didn’t make this for foreign countries…This was always for local fans.”[16] However, K-Pop fans started to post it on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and it was not long before internet users outside the K-Pop community began to notice it. Soon, celebrities in and outside the United States began to share the video with their fans, triggering a snowball effect.

About a month after its initial release, on August 17, Gangnam Style officially won first-place in the Korean music television programme Music Bank[26] on KBS 2TV, scoring a total of 18,601 points.

…a considerable slice of the U.S. blogosphere has beenobsessed with Psy’s new video “Gangnam Style”.

On September 15, “Gangnam Style” became the first K-Pop song to take the #1 position on the iTunes chart. [28] On September 17, it was nominated for Best Video at the upcoming 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards that will be held in Frankfurt, Germany.[29]

Maura Judkis of The Washington Post wrote, “‘Gangnam Style’ has made an extraordinarily stupid-looking dance move suddenly cool”.[47] The German weekly news magazine Der Spiegelsimilarly attributes the growing popularity of “Gangnam Style” to its daring dance moves.[48] Mesfin Fekadu of the Associated Press wrote that PSY is “currently having a pop culture moment.” PSY’s dance moves are “somewhat bizarre” but the music video is full of “colorful, lively outfits.” He also remarked that Psy “is excited his colorful style is being celebrated in the United States, and around the world.”[49]

Matt Miller, a host from the business and financial news broadcaster Bloomberg Television, played “Gangnam Style” during his show, because “its just a super hot video that has gone astronomically viral.” He also said that PSY did say on CNN that he wants to make people laugh even in the midst of all these global economic slowdowns, “so that’s the Wall Street tie-in” he needed.[38]

Melissa Locker of TIME noted that “it’s hard not to watch again …and again …and again”,[50] while CNN reporter Shanon Cook told the audience that she had watched “Gangnam Style” about 15 times.[51]

Although “Gangnam Style” has been met with largely positive reactions, some have found it wacky or even vulgar.[52] Matt Buchanan and Scott Ellis of the The Sydney Morning Herald writes that the video “makes no sense at all to most Western eyes” and it “makes you wonder if you have accidentally taken someone else’s medication.”[53] Paul Lester of The Guardian labelled it as “generic ravey Euro dance with guitars”.[54] and Robert Myers of The Village Voice called it “an inspired piece of silliness”.[55]

A resident of a shelter for disabled persons doing the Gangnam Style dance during a U.S. Navy community service visit inGeojedo, South Korea

One indicator of the song’s immense growing popularity is its performance on the video sharing platform YouTube. Deborah Netburn of the Los Angeles Times called it “one of the greatest videos ever to be uploaded to YouTube.”[67]

The video was uploaded on July 15, 2012.[3] It overtook Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos during the week of August 28, 2012.[10][68] On September 1, it overtook Girls’ Generation‘s “Gee” to become the most viewed K-Pop video on YouTube. Although “Call Me Maybe” has had unusually strong staying power, averaging over 1.5 million views each day, “Gangnam Style” increased to an average of over 6 million views per day within just 2 months. This is mainly because “Call Me Maybe” remained largely a North American trend, whereas “Gangnam Style”‘s popularity is not confined to the United States.[69] On September 13, 2012, Gangnam Style became the most liked video on YouTube with over 1.6 million likes,[70] beating LMFAO‘s “Party Rock Anthem” for the number one spot.[71] On September 20, “Gangnam Style” was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the Most ‘Liked’ Video in YouTube History.[9]

About 47% of the views came from the United States, 7% from the United Kingdom, 6.8% from Canada and 4% from South Korea.[72] Andrew Ryan ofThe Globe and Mail wrote that in two months, with 130 million views, including its accompanying videos, it was the “fifth-biggest viral video in the history of the Internet.”[73]

Gangnam Style was officially re-released on August 14, 2012, as “Oppa Is Just My Style” (Korean: 오빤 딱 내 스타일), featuring additional vocals provided by South Korean singer and 4minute member Hyuna. Mallika Rao of The Huffington Post wrote that the video was “apparently retrofitted here to work from a woman’s point of view, but the main difference we’re spotting is less invisible horse riding and more sultry side-eyeing.”[33] The accompanying music video has garnered over 48 million views in its first four weeks after its upload onto YouTube.[74]

From left: Psy, Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres dancing to the music of Gangnam Style

On September 6, Psy appeared on the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards performing his Gangnam Style dance alongside comedian Kevin Hart.[75] On August 20, Psy posted on Twitter “Bringing #GANGNAM STYLE to the Dodgers–Giants game this evening”. That evening, he performed his dance moves from “Gangnam Style” at Dodger Stadium in front of 43,000 baseball fans. The Los Angeles Dodgers posted a video on its official homepage titled “PSY Dance Cam”. The one and a half minute video clip shows fans dancing “Gangnam Style” and then shows Psy, who waves and then does the dance.[76]

On September 10, he appeared on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, introducing himself as “Psy from Korea”, before teaching Britney Spears the dance. He described the dance as “pretending to bounce like riding on an invisible horse.”[78][79][80] On September 14, he appeared on NBC‘s morning program Today for their Toyota Concert Series, where he performed the song, and also taught the anchors the dance.[81][82]

The September 15 season premiere episode of Saturday Night Live featured a sketch based on the song and its video. Bobby Moynihan portrayed Psy, but was joined mid-sketch by Psy himself.[83]

On September 22 2012 at the I ❤ Radio Music Festival Gangnam Style was performed at approximately 2:00 am Eastern Time.[clarification needed]

The music video for the song has gone viral and is considered by some to be an internet meme.[84] Hallie Sekoff of The Huffington Post quotes from the video’s official YouTube video description that the song is characterized by its “strongly addictive beats”, and writes that this is not too far-fetched, considering “how obsessed we’ve found ourselves.”[85] During VH1‘s Big Morning Buzz Live show, the television host Carrie Keagan says that everyone in our office is “completely obsessed” with “Gangnam Style”.[44][77]

During the late night comedy talk show Chelsea Lately, the American stand-up comedian and actress Chelsea Handler told the audience she considers Psy to be a “revolutionary musician, dancer and sex symbol”. She also compared him with the Latino pop singer Ricky Martin.[86]

Ju-min Park of Reuters mentioned that “a few of South Korea’s normally staid presidential candidates are imitating Psy’s moves in an appeal to voters”.[31] The Korea Tourism Organization has launched an ‘One day Gangnam tour’ that begins with some ‘gangnam styling’ at a beauty salon, shopping at the Apgujeong & Cheongdam boutiques, a quick luxury coffee and brunch, followed by the casino and clubbing.[87] In Thailand, two local gangs provoked each other by dancing “Gangnam Style”, eventually leading to a gun fight with more than 50 rounds fired.[88]

On September 7, the South Korean multinational conglomerate Samsung announced that Psy would be one of the new faces promoting its Zipel line of refrigerators.[89] A commercial was recently released featuring Psy and the K-Pop singer Lee Seung-gi dancing to the music of “Gangnam Style” in front of an Internet refrigerator.[90]

After the release of “Gangnam Style”, the American talent manager Scooter Braun, who discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube, asked on Twitter “How did I not sign this guy (Psy)”.[72] Soon afterwards, it was reported that Psy had left for Los Angeles to meet with representatives of Justin Bieber, to explore collaboration opportunities.[10][52] On September 3, Braun made a public announcement that was later uploaded onto YouTube, saying that he and Psy have decided to “make some history together. [To] be the first Korean artist to break a big record in the United States.” On September 4, it was confirmed that Psy was signed to Braun’s Schoolboy Records.[91]

One of the main factors that have led to “Gangnam Style” receiving worldwide media attention is its popularity among notable celebrities. According to The Wall Street Journal, T-Pain was among the first to have “sent [the video] to the stratosphere” when he tweeted about it on July 29.[92][93] It was then picked up by Neetzan Zimmerman from the social blog Gawker, who asked “Did this underground Hip Hop artist from South Korea just release the Best Music Video of the Year?”[94] on July 30.

The rapidly growing popularity and international recognition of “Gangnam Style” has spawned many related videos, including reaction videos and parodies. Some of these user generated videos have received international media recognition. These are among the earliest ones that caught the attention of the media :

North Korea has uploaded a video titled “I’m Yushin style!” onto the government website Uriminzokkiri[128] as a parody of South Korea’s ruling conservative party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye. The video shows a photo-shopped image of her doing the horse-riding dance, and mocks her as a devoted admirer of the “Yushin” system of autocratic rule set up by her father, Park Chung-hee.[7][6][129]

On September 12, Times Square was filled with a flash mob dancing to the music of “Gangnam Style” during ABC‘s Good Morning America.[133] Five days later, Psy appeared in a flash mob organized by the American entertainment TV show Extra in Los Angeles. The dress code was either “something comfortable” or “Psy-inspired clothing.”[134]

On September 16, the Uruguayan footballer of Italian descent Edinson Cavani scored a goal during Napoli‘s 3-1 win over Parma in the Italian Serie A and celebrated by doing the Gangnam Style dance.[148]

In mid-September 2012, 14 lifeguards from El Monte, California were released from official duties after they uploaded “Lifeguard Style,” a parody of “Gangnam Style,” using the city’s swimming pool at the El Monte Aquatic Center. The part-time and seasonal employees were immediately fired for violating contracts that stipulate an employee “cannot use any city property for his/her own private benefit.”[152] and “the city holds all employees to a higher standard.”[153]

Some of the lifeguards who only appeared in the background, but did not actively participate, were also fired. A Facebook page created by the lifeguards, titled “Bring Back the 14 El Monte Lifeguards”, had won the support of more than 11,000 fans within a few days.[154] In an interview on 97.1 AMP Radio with Carson Daly, Psy called the incident a “tragedy” and added that the city officials “were taking things too seriously”.[155] On September 14, Psy appeared on MTV News and left a message for El Monte’s mayor Andre Quintero: “I’m begging you to not fire please, because they were enjoying their souls with some other cultures and it was even off duty.”[156]

At a meeting on Sept. 18, 2012, after hearing from residents the El Monte City Council called for an investigation into the firing. Hundreds attended the meeting.[157] The meeting prompted columnist Frank C. Girardot to suggest that the lifeguards struggle would make a great movie with the title “High School Musical 14: The Hollywood Lifeguards”[158]

In mid-September, the Brazillian singer Latino released the song Despedida de solteiro (The Bachelor’s Party), which is supposed to be a cover of “Gangnam Style”. Although Latino had stated that it was an authorized version, many felt that except for the lyrics, his version did not include enough new content, and some have called it a plagiarized copy of “Gangnam Style”.[159]According to the Brazilian internet service provider Universo Online, Despedida de solteiro had generated more than 50,000 dislikes within 2 days.[160]

By 21 September, it had even surpassed the original “Gangnam Style”[161] with more than 100,000 dislikes.[162]

The song debuted at number 6 on the BillboardKorea K-Pop Hot 100 for the week of July 28, 2012.[163] “Gangnam Style” then topped the chart the week after,[11] and has remained at number 1 for five weeks.[164] The song has also peaked on Billboard’s YouTube Music Chart at number 1.[165] On August 21, 2012, “Gangnam Style” officially charted number 1 on the iTunes Music Video Charts, overtaking Justin Bieber’s “As Long as You Love Me” and Katy Perry’s “Wide Awake“; this feat is the first for any South Korean artist.[166] In South Korea the song was an instant success selling 745,000 downloads in its first week and remains atop the Gaon Single Chart for five consecutive weeks since debut. As of August 23, the song was downloaded over 2,545,837 times in South Korea alone. In Finland, “Gangnam Style” peaked at number 1 on the official download chart.[167]

In the United States, “Gangnam Style” debuted at number 74 on BillboardHot Digital Songs with 23,000 downloads sold in the week ending of September 8, 2012 and two weeks later reached number 25 with 61,000 downloads.[168] The song rocketed to number 4 for the chart week of September 29, with 188,000 downloads.[169] On the issue date of September 22, it debuted at the highest-charting ever number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the second K-Pop song to enter the chart behind the Wonder Girls‘ “Nobody” in 2009. In the same week, “Gangnam Style” also debuted on the Billboard Pop Songs at number 28.[168] As of September 20, 2012, Gangnam Style had sold 271,000 downloads in the US.[170] In its second week on the chart, “Gangnam Style” rose to #11.[169]

On September 9, 2012 “Gangnam Style” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 61, in it’s second week the song reached number 37. On September 19, 2012 Gregg James announced that the song had climbed 21 places to number 16. On September 21, 2012 the song had climbed from 16 to 6. The song was 22,000 copies behind “Hall of Fame” by The Script with sales of “Gangnam Style” accelerating by an average of 20% each day that week.[171]

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